Asynchronous Neuromorphic Digital Readout Circuit for Infrared Cameras for Autonomous Target Acquisition and Autonomous Vehicles

Currently, 3GEN FLIR consists of imaging in two infrared bands with four fields of view. This capability for the Army increases the effectiveness of the sensors to operate in all atmospheric conditions with much longer range than previous versions. In addition, new ground systems will employ autonomous vehicles that will have to contain some use of artificial intelligence to navigate and target. This will regain overmatch by reducing target acquisition time and engagement timelines compared to today’s manual search and acquiring “next target” process. It will also reduce the cognitive burden for vehicle crew by automating search and acquisition – targets are verified by man-in-the-loop prior to engagement. The project, if successful, will make a game changing improvement by indicating temporal events at the focal plane level and reduce latency of target acquisition times. This project will design a neuromorphic chip to be combined with the digital 3GEN FLIR readout circuit at the 12 micron pixel level. This two chip stacked readout will perform the basic sensor functions as well as the neuromorphic processing. Power dissipation of the neuromorphic chip will be at a minimum since it is cryogenically cooled to 75K and added heat load needs to be minimized.